


Paracetamol & Instant Coffee

by Strangerthanearth



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Mental Health Issues, References to Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 15:04:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13297404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strangerthanearth/pseuds/Strangerthanearth
Summary: If you came out with the statement that every teenager who lived in South Park wanted to do nothing but leave South Park, you wouldn’t be wrong.Such proved true for one nineteen year old boy called Craig Tucker.Tattoo shop au





	Paracetamol & Instant Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter Song: Constant Headache - Joyce Manor
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> So basically I haven't seen a tattoo shop au done before and I don't think its already been done. I have had the idea for literally years so I decided to make one! I hope you enjoy it! X

If you came out with the statement that every child who lived in South Park wanted to do nothing but leave South Park, you wouldn’t be wrong. The old town, where ancient, not exactly the most open minded people lived and where weird shit went down nearly on the daily, wasn’t exactly the most appealing to kids over the age of ten. The rundown streets and constant freezing temperatures were anything but interesting and the fact there was barely anything entertaining for anyone who had lost interest in snow.

While some of the kids from the town managed to get out and make a life for themselves elsewhere when they went off to college, the few that didn't go off to college during the September after high school, had been confined to the narrow streets and dinky buildings of South Park.

Such proved true for one nineteen year old boy called Craig Tucker.

Of course Craig had wanted nothing more than to get out of the old dingy town from the moment he was old enough to realise how shitty it was. As a child, Craig had all sorts of dreams about going off to college and become an astrophysicist, since he always had a particular fascination with space. Around middle school, he realised that he'd have to get pretty much all A’s to major in astrophysics and realizing he wasn't the most academic person, he abandoned that dream. After picking up the hobby of taking photos one summer, with an old camera his grandma bought on eBay for $50, Craig reckoned he could at least get in to photography in college, but come highschool with multiple failed exams, more than a few suspensions and by no means any capability of getting a scholarship in anything, Craig realised he was probably stuck in South Park once he left school, thus becoming an outcast.

Fast forward to the July after high school, who other than Kenny McCormick turns up on Craig's door step and proposes an opportunity, an opportunity that the two of them take over Kenny’s brother's tattoo parlour, while he's in jail for something Craig didn't quite catch. Something involving multiple drug charges and suspected sex trafficking. Craig realised it was a better idea to live in ignorant bliss than actually find out what happened to Kevin McCormick.

 

“Why me? You have other friends?” Craig reasoned. He'd always been friends with Kenny but the two were never majorly close.

 

“Well Stan and Kyle are in college the next state over and Cartman joined the army or something I think so you were the person I thought of.” Kenny responded in a chiper tone.

 

“Besides...what else are you doing?” Kenny added.

 

Lack of money and lack of ambitions and dreams really makes a guy do crazy things, so Craig took his friend up on the offer.

Kenny had been working for his brother since the age of fourteen, when he dropped out of school, so he kind knew the ropes pretty well. Some could call him South Park's best tattoo artist, but not like there was much competition to go against him. He had taken Craig under his wing and taught him everything he knew about piercing. Craig was mostly surprised at first about how hygienic and professional Kenny was. Looking at the 5’11” character, with shoulder length, dirty blonde hair, who was usually dressed in a grungy old orange hoodie, you wouldn't think hygiene was top of his priority list.

Aside from that fact, Craig managed to learn the skill in around six months. He wasn't entirely sure he'd been taught the exact right way, but so far he'd never had any horror stories and got a lot of practice in, piercing all the other fugitives in the town.

 

And hey,  it was better than sitting on his ass all day and being broke.

 

“Maaaaan, did you see the tits on the new girl in the corner store?“ Craig's blonde co-worker announced as he arrived in the shop one Monday morning. Craig usually came in before Kenny, since he lived closer to the shop and also because there was about a half an hour he got alone in the shop of sweet bliss, for him to just eat his breakfast in silence. Away from his family, away from Kenny, just alone by himself. He treasured that half an hour in the morning, which had just been interrupted by Kenny.

“Yeah I saw her.” Craig sighed, throwing down the magazine he'd been reading from the pile on the waiting area table. Kenny hopped over the front desk of the shop, parallel from the front door. Jumping into the seat behind it and throwing his booted feet up on the counter, he lay back and slung his arms behind his head. The male flashed his armpits, along with the big font that read “Fallen Angel” in cursive, tattooed across the top of his chest, under his collar bones, through the spaces in the loose grey wife beater he was wearing. Craig could shiver looking at him since it was very nearly winter and Kenny was walking around in barely anything. Then again Kenny never really got cold. Craig glanced again at his friend's tattoo, which he always thought was kind of dumb, often referring to it as “Gay.” but Kenny always defended that it had a deeper meaning.

“Dude, it's like 37 degrees out, would you not put on a proper t-shirt at least?” Craig asked, pulling the hood of his thick winter hoodie closer around his neck, practically feeling cold for Kenny. Kenny laughed and got out of his chair, rounding the desk and taking a seat next to Craig on the waiting area sofa.

“Ah, mother Craig is worried that i’ll catch a chill.” the blonde teenager laughed, going to ruffle Craig's fringe, sticking out from his dark blue chullo hat. Craig batted his hands away.

“You know what, fucking freeze to death, see if I care.” Craig snapped, pulling himself out of his seat and sitting down behind the desk. Kenny let out a snicker as the front door opened, the bell above it chiming out. A tall red haired girl entered the shop.

 

“Hey, I've an appointment to get a tattoo?” the woman asked, as if unsure of herself. Craig stared at the girl, bored, before gesturing to Kenny and nodding his head at the waiting area.

 

“...uh, thanks.” the girl continued, frowning slightly.

 

“ Don't mention it.” Craig muttered sarcastically, picking up some kind of alternative magazine he'd taken from the pile beside the sofa.

Kenny took a seat down next to the girl.

 

“Hey sweetheart. So I'm working on you today?” the blonde chimed. Craig cringed. Kenny always had this sweetie voice he talked to girls with to make him seem likeable and cute. It worked a lot, unfortunately, but Craig knew he was more vulgar than he portrayed to women. Not like Craig cared or anything, just that there'd be no chance he'd let his younger sister within a mile of Kenny. Kenny would try to fuck anything with a pulse.

 

The red haired girl nervously giggled and nodded her head. Kenny smiled sweetly to her before standing up from the old worn sofa and moved behind the desk, grabbing a thick folder off the shelf on the back wall, the jean chain he had looped on the hem of his jeans rattled in the process. He sat back down on the couch next to the girl, flipping open the folder of tattoo designs and quietly discussed it with the girl.

 

Craig sighed and lay back on the chair, pulling his fleece lined hat far down over his eyes and half listening to the quiet, flirty comments Kenny was making to the girl.

 

“Hey I think a little heart on your hip would look gorgeous, sweetheart.” The boy mused, shuffling closer to the girl and placing his hand her knee.

 

“You think so?” The girl giggled sweetly.

 

“Yeah, but then anything would look gorgeous on you.”

 

The girl grinned and nodded her head, to which Kenny gave her a wink before taking her hand and leading her into the back room of the shop. Craig rolled his eyes under his breath, letting out a loud exhale. He was pretty exhausted. Not like he wasn't used to being tired, most nights Craig found it hard to sleep. Usually he'd go to bed pretty early and try to drift off but would end up lying awake for hours, eventually passing out in the early hours of the morning. He'd pretty much had problems sleeping since sophomore year of high school.

But that day Craig felt particularly exhausted. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy and Kenny always made sure the heating in the shop was on (his theory being that if a girl got too warm she'd start taking off her clothes) so Craig was pretty cosy curled up in the chair behind the desk. The male could feel his breath steadying as he drifted off to sleep.

  


_______________________

 

Craig woke up about forty minutes, after his feet started to lean towards the edge and fell off the desk where he'd kicked them up before. He jumped up slightly with a start before realising what happened, he rubbed his eyes and groaned quietly.

He was not going to be able to stay awake.

Maybe if he went outside the cold would wake him up and he could have a smoke.

Craig lifted his foot off the table and stood up, slightly wobbly. He knocked on the door to the back of the shop and opened it, sticking his head in.

Inside, Kenny was turned away from the door, pinning the girl against the wall, her legs wrapped around his waist and his jeans pulled down to mid-butt. He jumped a bit when Craig suddenly opened the door. Craig yelled out and pulled the door shut again.

“Fuck’s sake Kenny!” the dark haired boy yelled through the door. Kenny giggled in response.

“...I’m going out for a bit, mind the desk...when you're done.” Craig snapped. He angrily pulled hood up over his chullo hat and stormed out of the shop.

It was freezing outside and Craig was beginning to regret not grabbing his jacket that was hanging off the coat rack, as he stormed out. The teen could see his breath in the air and rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm them. He pulled a squashed box of cigarettes out of his pocket and a banged up lighter, pulling out one, pressing it to his lips and then lighting it. Craig took a few drags off of it before deciding it was too cold to just stand there. The teen continued walking down the street, hoping he could find a shop he could dip into to warm up a bit. He spotted Tweek Bros. Coffee shop a few yards down the street and quickly crossed the road, running in out of the cold weather.

The shop was definitely warmer than outside and Craig shivered at the change in temperature and his fingertips tingled as the heat hit them. The shop smelt strongly of coffee and sugar, the wooden tables shone wet as if they'd just been wiped down and there was no customers in the shop except Craig and some hipster guy around his mid twenties, tapping aggressively on a Macbook. To the far right of the shop, past various tables and booths, there was a long mahogany counter with huge shiny metallic coffee machines behind it. Down the back wall there was a door, presumably leading to a back room. A short blonde figure was holding the door open and talking to someone in the room, the form looked as if it was shaking slightly.

Craig moved closer to the counter, standing at the far end where the till was. He looked towards the blonde figure by the door and waited patiently for him to come by. The man in the backroom came to view in the door frame and had pointed towards Craig, while the blonde figure looked in the direction the man was pointing and had to double take as he looked back at the teenager. The figure moved towards the teen cautiously, continuously jittering as they continued forward.

As they came about two metres away from the till, it finally clicked.

Hold on. That's Tweek.

 

“Oh fuck, yeah. His dad owns this shop.” Craig muttered to himself.

 

“-Hi Craig.” The blonde male spoke up once he'd reached the till.

 

Craig was a bit stunned, maybe because he hadn't seen Tweek in maybe three years. Last he'd heard of the twitchy kid was in sophomore year when he had to take time out of school for some reason or another. Everyone reckoned Tweek had finally snapped and his anxiety had drove him to insanity. Then again those were all rumours.

Tweek had changed a lot since then though. His once skinny frame was now a little less skinny, still frail but not almost skeleton like anymore, a light brown wool sweater adorned his upper body, along with an apron printed with the coffee shop logo. His face was longer slightly and his cheeks weren't as chubby as before, along with a stronger jawline and blonde peach fuzz stuck out from his chin and cheeks. Dark purple bags ran rings around his dark green eyes and freckles speckled most of his face.

 

“...uh Hi Tweek.”

 

“What can I get you?” the blonde gave Craig a small grin, flashing his slightly crooked teeth.

 

“uhh can I have a latte please?” Craig said quickly, glancing up at the big notice board full of various drink names.

 

“Regular or L-arge?”

 

“Sorry?”

 

“The latte size-?”

 

“Oh, right...eh regular please.” Craig was so mesmerized by this encounter, he wasn't even paying attention to what he was trying to order. He couldn't get over the fact that Tweek was standing right in front of him. He'd always just assumed Tweek had dropped off the face of the earth, never to be heard of again. He didn't think he'd ever see him again, let alone just across from the place he'd been working at for over a year. Then again, Tweek’s dad owned this coffee shop since before either the teenagers were born. How could he have forgotten that. Fuck Craig's shitty memory.

Tweek picked up a cup from a stack of them, high beside the coffee machine. He scribbled something on the cup in a sharpie marker, before placing it under the spout of the coffee machine. He got to work frothing milk as coffee poured into the cup from the spout. Oddly enough, Tweek was completely still while frothing the milk and making the coffee, and after squinting his eyes, Craig noticed Tweek’s fingers were littered in various coloured plasters, wrapped around his digits. The blonde teen carefully poured the milk into the cup at an angle before placing it onto the counter in front of Craig. A small design of a leaf was etched into the coffee with the milk.

“That'll b-be 2.50 please.” Tweek informed quietly as he tapped something into the register. Craig jumped slightly as he remembered he still had to pay the blonde teenager. He dug into his pocket and pulled out two crumpled up dollars and two quarters, pressing them into Tweek’s hand.

 

“Thanks Craig.” Tweek began jittering slightly again, placing the money into the register and pushing it closed.

 

“Have a n-nice day!” Tweek smiled gently at the tall boy in front of him. Craig's brain finally recognised this as the time to head off. Picking up his coffee, Craig grabbed on of the cup lid from the box provided on the counter, along with two sugars.

 

“Uh, thanks. You too.” Craig mumbled as he turned around and headed for the door.

The teenager pulled open the coffee shop door and walked back out into the cold, crossing the street and back a few shops down to the tattoo shop. Craig paused outside holding his coffee in his left hand and his right hand tucked into his hoodie pocket. He was still in shock from what had just occurred.

Tweek was back.


End file.
